I am so very sorry for your loss. I cannot imagine what you are going through right now. I had no idea this could happen from Erbitux. Thank you for sharing this and I pray that you can find some comfort in the future.
Blessings,
Kathy

I am so sorry for your loss. I cannot imagine how you are feeling now after such a shock. Thank you for posting the warning. I also recall the incident with another OCF member. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Shawn, from what I have read about cetuximab I think you should go for it. It is the best known way to improve your odds. Having said that -- report anything funny once the infusion starts. Immediately. The staff should be fully prepared for allergic reactions but maybe drop a comment about this drug causing severe reactions and is the stuff to treat reactions close at hand?

I think the staff at our hospital outpatient clinic was as prepared as can be expected for something that rarely happens. I am in no way critical of their response. I think my husband reported feeling itchy and short of breath immediately but this event hit like a bomb. I am not anti-cetuximab but I have read that there is a test to see who is at higher risk of having an allergic reaction, who has a particular antibody that may set it off, but it is not widely used.

This falls into the category of "stuff happens". But beware and be prepared.

Your words are not meaningless. Your thoughts are appreciated. Thank you and all the best. Laura

Cheryl, what can I say? The future as I understood it was that he would have increasing difficulty with breathing and continue to feel too tired to do any of the things he enjoyed. I am profoundly relieved but profoundly impacted by the shock and suddenness of the way things turned out. It is like trading one set of worries for another but I will always feel that it turned out right. Thanks for sharing because it reinforces this view. Laura

I'm so very sorry for your loss. Thanks for the warning even when there must be a host of other things that you will have to deal with. Thank you for thinking of those who are still fighting the dreaded disease.

My blessings go out to you at a very difficult time I do hope that you and your family get some peace and know that he is with you always.

I am not a superstitious person either but I do believe our family members do stick around to make sure we are okay for a time after they have gone. Since it's almost Halloween I will relate a spooky story. My dad passed this year in March and one night a month ago we sat at the table discussing "paranormal phenomenon" with some family members. At the time I first said - I knew my mom was around quite a bit after she had passed, checking up on me and my stepdad, but I couldn't remember the same feeling with my dad. Then I remembered a few nights after he passed I was sleeping, and felt someone kiss me on the mouth. It had always been funny with my dad because he liked to kiss on the mouth where as I was a cheek kind of girl. At the time, even though I was asleep, I remembered thinking oh that's dad coming to say goodbye. Jump ahead a few days after the dinner at the family members and the paranormal conversation and my step mom tells me she is going to see a psychic. I meant to tell her to say hi to dad for me when she went but my father in law is not well and it just slipped my mind. A few days later she called to tell me what had happened and that the psychic had told her that after my dad died, he came to visit me to tell me he loved me. This gave me chills and still brings me to tears. I told her that in fact he had... I had just remembered it on the weekend when I'd been talking to a family member. She told me I'd never mentioned it to her. And I hadn't because I had completely forgotten the incident. They do stay with us.

Cue the twilight zone music. hugs & blessings to you.

A few weeks after my dad passed away I was having an exceptionally hard time with missing him. He used to take my face in his hands and rub his beard stubble on my face. I told my husband I just wanted to feel his beard on my face one more time. That night I had a dream. I was in a store shopping and turned around to find my dad behind me. I said "Daddy, what are you doing here, you died?" He took my face in his hands, rubbed his stubble on my face and said "just giving you your one more time!" I woke up sobbing, then realized my face felt prickly and hot where he had rubbed in my dream. Just crazy but filled me with peace.
Kathy

It does bring an amazing amount of peace. hugs.

I cannot begin to tell you how much this hurts my heart and I know yours is breaking. It makes me so sad to read about your husband and that this happened to someone else. I am Johns Wife (Laura) and my husband died in 2011 minutes after receiving Erbitux. He was 24 days into treatment for cancer in his throat. It was a reply to my post here (June 2011) that alerted me to the tick bites and the link to an infusion reaction with Erbitux. It is proven that the tick bite is the cause of the allergic reaction (Dr Platts-Mills made this statement at a conference in San Diego earlier this year). The drug company is aware of this allergy and it is simple to test for Alpha-Gal but unless you search both Erbitux and Tick Bite together you will not find any information about it. Not in the literature or package insert or anything on-line. Again, I am so sorry for your loss.

Laura, I'm so sorry. I hadn't seen you on the forum for a while and hoped all was going well. I am so so sad to read this, and will be thinking of you and your family. I think I pm'd my number to you at some stage because you live quite close. Ring me anytime if you would like to talk. Linda